The Market

The market potential for an effective snow-plowable RPM is outstanding. According to Federal Highway Administration statistics, the total roadway in the United States is approximately 3.9 million miles. Approximately 3 million miles of U. S. roads receive regular snowfall annually. Assuming only 100 markers per mile, (actually at 40-foot spacing, 132 markers are needed to cover only the centerline for one mile of roadway on a two-lane road), over 300 million markers would be required to provide centerline delineation on 3 million miles of highway. The plowable marker therefore has a sales potential of $6 billion (300 million units times $20 per unit selling price). This sales projection is conservative. When multiple lanes, entrance and exit ramps are taken into account, the domestic sales potential alone would more than double. When combined, Canada and Europe present a market potential that is nearly as large as the United States. The Canadian province of Ontario, for example, would require 1.8 million units just to delineate the 16 percent of the road mileage under Provincial Jurisdiction. A market penetration of only 2% of the U.S. alone yields annual sales in excess of $120 million.

A new 6 year federal highway bill has recently been passed into law. Provisions of the bill include federal safety funding to the states at two times the previous levels. Clearly, the highway safety industry will benefit greatly from this increased funding.

Plans
Activities in year 1 will concentrate on completing fine-tuning of the product design and installation procedures, thorough in-house field testing, and installing four to six demonstration installations in targeted states as well as the NTPEP national testing program. In addition, development of a high-speed installation system will be conducted.